Prospect of Utilizing Novel Nanomaterials for Effective Food Security, Safety, Packaging, and Preservation

Abstract

274Food commodities are normally wrapped and hygienically transferred after processing to safeguard and preserve them from any unpalatable changes, especially in the level of quantity before it is delivered to the consumer. Moreover, food packaging has been identified as one of the current innovations in material science and technology, which also constitutes a greater factor that could influence the choice of consumer’s demand. It has been observed that the consumers of nowadays normally request for food with high level of food product having the following essential features, such as extended shelf life, natural quality, minimal processing, assured safety, and so forth. The application of innovative packaging system also constitutes effective distribution, preservation of food during transportation, and improvement in adequate communication with the consumer level. Therefore, there is a need to search for an innovative and sustainable technology that could lead to tremendous advancement in the area of food packaging especially through science of nanomaterials and nanotechnology. The advances in nanotechnology have drastically led to changes in numerous areas of food science, such as storage, processing, functionality, packaging, and food safety. Several nanomaterials, which include nanoorganic material incorporated into bioactive substances, metal oxides, and inorganic metal as well as their nanocomposites have been utilized in food industry. Moreover, despite all the benefits of nanotechnology, the high level of buildup of these nanomaterials in the environment and human health has constituted several health hazards. Hence, there is a need to put necessary policies regarding safety and health-related issues as one of the greatest priorities that need to be considered during processing, ingestion of nanomanufactured food products, production stage, intelligently and actively packaging, and processing. This chapter intends to provide a detailed information on recent advances in the application of nanotechnolgy in processing and food packaging industries. Moreover, detailed information on the application of sensors and biosensor in food packaging is also highlighted.